a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicular velocity controlling apparatus and method to follow up a preceding vehicle which is running ahead of the vehicle with an appropriate inter-vehicle distance maintained.
b) Description of the Related Art
A Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. Heisei 7-47864 published on Feb. 21, 1995 exemplifies a previously proposed vehicular velocity controlling apparatus enabled for the vehicle to follow up the preceding vehicle at a safe inter-vehicle distance.
In the previously proposed vehicular velocity controlling apparatus, the safe inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle is determined with a road surface condition and a vehicular running state taken into consideration and an engine output is controlled to make an actual inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle substantially equal to the safe inter-vehicle distance.